September 07, 2006

Closing McClellan a no-go

Seventy-five people or so showed up at Davenport's McKinley School tonight for a discussion on a suggestion that McClellan Boulevard be closed at River Drive.

While most everyone agreed that pulling onto River Drive from McClellan is dangerous business, and that traffic exiting River Drive there often is moving way too fast, there wasn't anything close to a consensus on what to do about it.

The principal concern was the impact closing the intersection would have on the streets most likely to be the new routes of choice between River Drive and Jersey Ridge Road. There seemed to be general agreement that neither Mound Street nor Forest Road are good candidates to pick up an additional 1,000 or so cars a day.

After an hour or so of dueling suggestions, Sixth Ward Ald. Charlie Brooke told the crowd, in effect, that it's back to drawing board, and that they'd all be notified if and when another idea surfaces.

Posted by jcb at September 7, 2006 09:14 PM

Comments

Can't believe a thousand cars use McClellan for access to or from River Drive each day. There would be waaaay more accidents there if that was the case.

Of course, the problem wouldn't exist if the speed limit for traffic on River Drive was ever enforced. In fact, I've never (in more than 20 years) seen any speed enforcement on that stretch of River Drive.

Actually, the city traffic engineer said it's about 2,000 a day, coming and going. Figure doesn't seem high to me. East River Drive is pretty busy at times, with people cutting from River Drive over to Jersey Ridge.

Posted by: jcb at September 8, 2006 12:35 AM

The only thing that would stop speeding on East River Drive would be speed bumps. Part of the problem is, drivers are being asked to go from 40 mph (speed limit on River Drive) to 20 mph in such a short distance. Slow down too much while still on River Drive, and other drivers will be tailgating you!

Posted by: Vita at September 11, 2006 09:52 AM

what about traffic light at that location?

certainly that would solve the issue of eastbound cars turning across multiple lanes of uncontrolled fast moving traffic.